Film at Eleven

Free Jimmy is a heartwarming Norwegian animation about… a paranoid, drug addicted elephant.

On the day when Odd reveals to Geir that he owes the unpredictable and violence-prone Ivan 4 400 US dollars, and that he has gotten Geir involved in it all, their old pal Roy Arnie shows up, dragging along their mutual friend Kælle.

Ever since he was a little boy, Roy Arnie has been crazy about the circus. This launched him into a career as a circus hand. He has worked with several Russian circuses, touring the Soviet Union. Currently he is working as tour manager for Circus Stromowskij, run by a hopeless alcoholic fourth generation circus director, Igor Stromowskij. Circus Stromowskij has a long and proud tradition, but today the circus is a sorry sight. Everything is run down and in shambles, the artists are aging, faded stars, the animals are malnourished, sick and spent, way past the age of retirement.

Their main attraction is Jimmy the elephant. Jimmy has been with the circus for twenty years. Throughout his career he has been propped up with drugs, uppers to make him do his best in the ring, downers to calm him when they head back on the road. This has made a junkie out of Jimmy. And, like all junkies, he is extremely paranoid about the police. Roy Arnie is responsible for supplying the animals with drugs, and is therefore Jimmy’s “best friend.” In his Wal-mart shopping bag Roy Arnie carries amphetamine, in the Kmart bag he has opiates.

When Jimmy runs away from the circus, he gets a group of militant animal rights activists on his tail, and they are fearless in their effort to free animals and punish corpse-eaters. They are straight edge; they don’t touch alcohol or drugs, and are against casual sex, but they are often unsure of what they really stand for. Anyway, they love explosives, as opposed to the Lapp mafia who are into guns. The Lapp mafia run everything up North; drugs, prostitution, gambling. They have solid connections with the Russian mafia, and they are also trying to hunt down Jimmy. So is a bunch of drunken frustrated hunters with Hold Mah Eyes in charge. They have been drinking and shooting at everything that moves for several days without hitting so much as a single moose. It is precisely the Moose, that magnificent king of the mountain that proves to be Jimmy’s saviour. High above, on the rooftop of the world, an extraordinary and touching friendship evolves.

Now for the really good news…

Twitch reports that there is an English version of Free Jimmy on the way.

But it gets better…

I’ve just checked on the IMDb and none other than Simon Pegg has been roped in to write the English version of the screenplay.

And then go look at the English cast list (follow the timeline to December 2002)…

Woody Harrelson, Kyle Maclachlan, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss, Jim Broadbent… the list goes on.

No trailer yet, but I have really high hopes for this film already.

FilmStew reports that Tim Burton wants to produce a feature length version of 9, a science fiction short by new animator Shane Acker which has just won the best animated film at the annual Comic-Con in San Diego. The film also won a student film Academy Award and is eligible for an Oscar next spring.

The visuals are computer generated with a stylized quality that suggests stop motion animation. Burton calls the short “among the most extraordinary 10 minutes of film we’ve ever seen” and calls the style “hauntingly beautiful.”

The official site for Peter Jackson’s King Kong is now online with the usual collection of buddy icons, screensavers, wallpapers and synopsis - all wrapped with with a wholly unnecessary Flash based menu.

If you want to know what the current state of play is for this film, you are still much better off heading over to Kong is King.net.

Twitch has a bucketload of stills from the upcoming Terry Gilliam produced Brothers Quay film The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes.

According to the helpfully translated synopsis…

On the evening before her wedding, opera singer Malvina (Amira Casar) is mysteriously killed by Dr. Emmanuel Droz (Gottfried John), who loves her obsessively. A “brain doctor” and inventor who has unlocked the secrets of rejuvenation, Droz steals away with the lifeless body before anyone can react - particularly her fiance, Adolfo Blin (Cesar Sarachu).

Far off at his secluded residence, Villa Azucena, Droz brings Malvina back to life, but only to keep her in a state of resigned lifelessness. Night after night, he rehearses an opera with her, one he’s written himself.

Droz has designed an artistically elaborate stage, and it’s here that he intends, at the peak of a one-time-only performance, pour his own life - as the hero - into hers. It’s in this way, so his hypothesis goes, that he will be united with Malvina in an eternal embrace and also take his revenge on the opera world, which has so far rejected his musical creations.

Felisberto (Cesar Sarachu), a piano tuner, is called by Droz to see to his instruments: the automatic machines, driven by the tides, seem in some puzzling way to be influencing life at Villa Azucena. Because he bears a resemblance to her fiance, Alfredo, Felisberto is able to establish communication with Malvina. He falls in love with her and, once he begins to see through Droz’s plans, decides to risk everything to save her. Assumpta (Assumpta Serna), the housekeeper and the Doctor’s lover, warns him, though at the same time, she is torn between her love for her employer and her jealousy of the singer.

Now go see the stills.

The BBC reports that crime novelist - and Reservoir Dogs‘ Mr Blue - has died in California aged 71.

According to the IMDb…

Has been convicted of numerous crimes since early childhood, including smashing a neighbor’s backyard incinerator with a claw hammer at 3, setting fire to a neighbor’s garage at 4 and jamming a fork in a boy’s eyeball at 15. By 17, Bunker had established himself as the Doogie Howser of the California penal system, parlaying a series of robberies, assaults and the stabbing of a prison guard into a stint in San Quentin (he was the youngest inmate there at the time).

And it was his 18 years in US prisons that inspired him to write his first novel, No Beast So Fierce - the story of a paroled thief who had trouble re-entering society - in 1973.

Fellow author James Ellroy described is as “quite simply one of the great crime novels of the past 30 years - perhaps the best novel of the Los Angeles underworld ever written”.

Twitch reports that Tartan Video are to release Shinya Tsukamoto’s Vital on 5th December.

Vital is the story a medical student who attends his first dissection only to discover it’s the body of his former girlfriend, a experienced which leads him to reflect on what might have been.

The BBC reports that Bruce Lee is to be honoured in Hong Kong with a statue to mark his 65th birthday.

The bronze statue, to be unveiled in November, will honour Lee as “Chinese film’s bright star of the century”.

Lee fans are being invited to choose their favourite design out of a shortlist of three on the internet.

The organisers are hoping the two-metre high statue will become the first statue of Lee on public display in the world although they will have to get their skates on if they are to beat the people of Mostar, who are also planning a Bruce Lee statue.

AFIA’s Perfect Match Call For Synopsis Proposal

The philosophy of Perfect Match is quiet simple: There are thousands of independent filmmakers all over the world looking to get their film scored with an exceptional and “right” sound and there are thousands of independent composers looking to score a film. Why not to help them make a match? When it is successful it must be celebrated and the festival is only one possible venue for purpose.

Perfect Match is a unique opportunity for film composers, musicians and bands to place their music in a film, as well as for filmmakers and producers to find an excellent and time-stress-cost-saving score to their film.

Find out more about AFIA’s Perfect Match competition here

In the second installment of an occasional series of trailer blowouts, I bring you… Belgium. All courtesy of La Big Family.

The ketchupsong

Situated in a small Flemish village, ‘The Ketchupsong’ tells the story of the unusual friendship between a 7-year old girl, Emma, and the sweet, dynamic older lady, Lea, who moves in the house next door. Emma is an honest girl and promises Lea that she will always listen to her mum… ‘The Ketchupsong’ is a story about friendship, prejudice, and innocence lost.

Info Trailer

Schijn van de maan

An eight-year-old boy lives with his parents in a dictatorial regime. Under the MOONGLOW, obscure things happen. When his mother watches her husband being killed, she sees her little boyís world collapsing. She decides to hide the death of her husband and tells her son that his father went on holiday to the moon.

Info Trailer

Kismet

Kismet is a film about female representation in different political systems. Different female characters perform the everlasting swing between attraction and repulsion, set within a socio-cultural context. A comparison between pin ups and women with hidjab.

Info Trailer

Flatlife

Hanging a painting on the wall, building a house of cards, doing the laundry and watching TV : utmost innocent and harmless actions in the daily lives of four ordinary people. But of all the bad luck, these people had to live next to each other.

Info Trailer

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Actor, James Doohan died yesterday from Alzheimers Disease, aged 85.

He will be most fonldy remembered as chief engineer Montgomery Scott in Star Trek.

(via The BBC)

Update: Doohan’s ashes are to be sent into space